10 Ways To Save Yourself From The Swamp

As promised, here are The 10 Things To Do NOW To Create a Prosperous Business That is Free From The Critical and Evil Forces in Your Swamp… these are the creepy, slimy, scary things working against your greater good, mission, purpose, goals and objectives.

9. High maintenance, ungrateful, low value customers… remember there are a lot of ‘costs of goods sold’ that aren’t dollars (time, stress, inefficiency, the morale of your team). Customers can cost you a lot more than just expenses – many of them you are losing money on when you look at the actual impact their attitudes have on your business.

8. Sluggish technology, broken equipment, inefficient anything that makes you or your people less productive.

7. Poor vendors and suppliers that aren’t as smart as you about what they are supposed to be doing. You are in the business of making money – not entertaining others who are suppose to be doing their job. Anyone who distracts or takes away from your focus must be destroyed.

6. Free is often the most expensive of all things brought into your business. Free help, free technology, free ‘support’ with equipment purchase, free handouts to customers, free labor… you can’t expect good service from free and shouldn’t even want it.

5. Get rid of and eliminate competition by being in a category of one, creating strong referral initiatives and have ample lead generation so you are in control of your deal flow. You must be so focused on what you are doing you don’t have time to consider others (be aware but not consumed). The founder of McDonalds use to say “we can innovate faster than they can copy…” he was focused on his empire, not the swamp all around it.

4. Bad systems, ineffective sales processes and all of the things that get in the way of your customers saying yes. More sabotage is done to keep customers from buying than there are things deliberately done to help them buy. Make sure you or anything or anyone in your marketing, selling and servicing of your business is not working against you without even knowing it. The only way to do this is to pay attention, check in, and constantly assess and evaluate.

3. Unhealthy habits that make it impossible for you to be at peak performance. You should feed your mind everyday, sweat everyday, relax everyday and get into a routine that helps make sure you are in shape to fight against the swamp’s inhabitants.

2. Negative anything in your life (people, places and things that sabotage your energy and get in your way). You simply can’t perform at an optimal level with any influence than brings you down to less than being at your very best.

1. And above all else fight like hell to drain the swamp in your head that tells you “you can’t” or “it won’t happen” or “it’s not possible.” Any doubts, self-defeating beliefs or negative thoughts that move you away from your goals must go. You can be your own best asset or your biggest enemy.

Here’s the most important point: success will not happen because you find a shortcut or have an easy path – it will only happen because you learn to create an environment around you that facilitates your progress and serves as catalyst for your goals.

You have to ask yourself every day “Is what I’m doing right now, or is this person, this thing, this idea, this system helping me get where I want to go or in the way of it?”

Next week we’ll talk about getting the most out of your resources and relationships. Now, get to draining your swamp before the alligators get you.